Semantics and pragmatics of the collocation “traditional values” in media discourse

Section: Media Language

The historical processes that we are witnessing determine the relevance of this study. The authors focus on the current key words. These are lexical units that appear in media discourse in connection with specific significant events on the socio-political agenda. Such words have a special communicative status. In terms of meaning, the current key words are comparable to a whole sentence. The communicative status of such lexical units determines their central position in the semantic network of discourse. In the current media space, one of the most popular keywords is “traditional values”. The breadth of its widespread use is set by the president’s authority: public speeches and the corresponding Decree. However, the semanticization of this keyword is not complete. It is common for this collocation to be used without understanding its internal content. This use of the phrase “traditional values” is a tribute to the etiquette that has developed in professional speech. This study provides a semantic and stylistic (in terms of speech influence) analysis of the use of current keyword “traditional values” and proves the historical conditioning of its ambiguous use in media discourse. The following mechanisms of realization of suggestive (and partly manipulative) potential have been revealed: propositionality; inclusion in the system of fixed concepts; hidden commands; construction of the opposition “friend-foe”; reliance on the Russian rhetorical ideal.

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To cite this article: Prokofeva N. A., Shcheglova E. A., Vyrovtseva E. V. (2026) Semantika i pragmatika upotrebleniya kollokatsii “traditsionnye tsennosti” v mediadiskurse [Semantics and pragmatics of the collocation “traditional values” in media discourse]. Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta. Seriya 10. Zhurnalistika 1: 73–102. DOI: 10.55959/msu.vestnik.journ.1.2026.73102